No ordinary Joe

By Mike Batista

Steelahs.com sheriff

September 24, 2007

No one can say the Steelers haven’t been tested this season. After all, they trailed for 12 seconds Sunday before roaring back and routing the San Francisco 49ers 37-16.

Joe Nedney, who should be known as Joe Bleeping Nedney to true Steelers fans, kicked a 32-yard field goal to give the 49ers a 3-0 lead 5:36 into the game, dealing the Steelers their first deficit of the season.

Allen Rossum, who until Sunday should have been known as Allen Bleeping Rossum to true Steelers fans for wasting a roster spot, returned the ensuing kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown and a 7-3 Steelers lead 5:48 into the game.

The Steelers (3-0) led the rest of the way, but this wasn’t the Browns or the Bills. The lifting got a little bit heavier this week. The 49ers (2-1) are my pick as parity’s darlings in the NFL this season. I said they would have the best record in the NFC, then go down in the divisional round of the playoffs. OK, best record in the NFC might be a little bit of a stretch, but I’ll stick to my guns on that. At the very least, I think the Steelers faced a playoff-caliber team.

The 49ers still had a shot when they took possession down 23-9 with 4:59 left in the game. Bryant McFadden foiled that drive with a 50-yard interception return for a touchdown, making it 30-9 with 4:01 to go. It certainly seemed like Dandy Don Meredith “Turn Out the Lights” time (by the way, you just don’t get that sort of thing anymore with today’s announcers. It’s too bad.). But the 49ers weren’t done yet. They scored with 2:30 left to get back to within two touchdowns. Punter Daniel Sepulveda added “hands-team member” to his job description by cradling the onsides kick to secure the win.

The sweetest thing about this victory? The Steelers beat a team with Joe Nedney, who kicked the winning field goal in overtime for the Tennessee Titans to beat the Steelers 34-31 in the 2002 AFC divisional playoffs. Nedney missed his first attempt, but got another chance when Dewayne Washington was called for roughing the kicker. After the game, Nedney said that he should try acting, hinting that he took a dive and convinced the officials that Washington hit him harder than he really did. Bastard.

The Steelers went 10-5-1 that year. It was the Year of Tommy Maddox. They didn’t have a great defense, but they could put points on the board. If they could have pulled out that game in Tennessee, and then somehow won another shootout in Oakland in the AFC championship game, they would have faced Tampa Bay in Super Bowl XXXVII. The Buccaneers won the Super Bowl, but the Steelers were the last team to beat them. They won 17-7 in Tampa on a Monday night in the second to last week of the season. For two teams who didn’t see much of each other, the Steelers and Bucs had a pretty fierce rivalry in that era. Lee Flowers, a Steelers safety at the time, called the Buccaneers paper champions.

The Bucs were without starting quarterback Brad Johnson in that Monday night game, but the Steelers’ win over them that late in the season might have been in their heads if they faced them again in the Super Bowl. But thanks to Nedney’s Oscar performance, the Steelers were two wins short of another shot at the Bucs.

That wasn’t the only time the Steelers were denied a Super Bowl berth against a team they beat in the regular season. I have to bring up this historic footnote since the Steelers only play the 49ers once every four years. When the 49ers went 15-1 and won the Super Bowl in 1984, the Steelers were the only team to beat them. It was a 20-17 win at San Francisco in Week 7. I’m on a mission to find some kind of account of that game. All I’ve found on the Internet is a score. I might have to go old-school and resort to microfilm at a library. I figure the 49ers must have been without a key player in that game. The Steelers weren’t that good, but they were good enough to win a crummy AFC Central with a 9-7 record and upset the Broncos in the playoffs. But they weren’t good enough to deny Dan Marino his only Super Bowl appearance.

This year, the Steelers are good. They’re 3-0 for the first time since 1992, Bill Cowher’s first season as coach. They went 11-5 that year and lost to the Buffalo Bills in the first round of the playoffs. They were the top seed in the AFC playoffs that year, but they were still wet behind the ears and couldn’t overcome a more seasoned Bills team that was in the midst of four straight Super Bowl appearances. That’s kind of the same fate I foresee for this year’s 49ers.

The last time the Steelers went 4-0? In 1979, the year they won their fourth Super Bowl. In 1978, they started 7-0. Zeroes under the ‘L’ column were rare during the Cowher Era, since Cowher was notorious for slow starts.

OK, enough looking back. It seems like a damn good Steelers season is unfolding here, and I’m giving history lessons about the numbingly mediocre 1980s  Sorry about the flashback. It’s Joe Nedney’s fault

The Steelers are Mike Tomlin’s team now. Having said that, he doesn’t get as much face time during game broadcasts as his predecessor. He doesn’t scream and shout. He doesn’t spit in players’ faces. He doesn’t run up and down the sideline. He’s cool and calm as he presides over the game operation, delegating power to his assistants. That doesn’t make for good television. I want to see more of Tomlin. The lack of exposure kind of adds an air of intrigue to the new Steelers coach. I’d like to hear more from him, too, but when I listen to his press conferences I can’t always decipher his Southern accent.

One thing that did resonate loud and clear was Tomlin's pledge to run Willie Parker “until the wheels come off.” He sure used him yesterday. Parker gained 133 yards on 24 carries. He didn’t score any touchdowns, but his runs were key in driving the Steelers to their second touchdown, which came late in the first half and gave them a 14-6 halftime lead. He also was instrumental in the Steelers’ opening drive of the second half, which resulted in a field goal. The wheels on Willie go round and round. Hey, if Jerome Bettis was The Bus, then what’s Parker? The Porsche? The Ferrari?

The Steelers’ offense didn’t end with Parker. In case you haven’t heard by now, the Steelers are going to use their tight ends a lot this season. Heath Miller was their leading receiver with four catches for 82 yards. Jerame Tuman caught a 9-yard touchdown pass. And they were without rookie Matt Spaeth, who has two touchdown catches this year. Ben Roethlisberger completed 13 of his 20 passes, and only four were caught by wide receivers.

On defense, the Steelers got off the field on third down, allowing only five of 15 third-down conversions. They yielded just 289 yards of total offense (many of them coming late in the game when the 49ers were throwing the ball on just about every play). They had only two sacks. The 49ers picked up the blitz fairly well. But that’s nitpicking.

The bottom line is the Steelers faced their strongest opponent of the season so far, and they still won convincingly.

And we don’t have to see Joe Nedney again.